Purpose

Greater Manchester, like the rest of the country, is facing significant fostering sufficiency challenges. There are fewer mainstream fostering placements available than six years ago, while demand for children’s care placements has continued to grow. This has contributed to greater reliance on residential care, independent provision and placements that may be further from children’s families, schools and communities.
The GM Fostering Hub was established to strengthen recruitment through a shared regional approach to marketing, enquiry handling and early applicant engagement. The Hub has improved visibility of fostering across Greater Manchester, strengthened early-stage conversion and created a more consistent experience for people interested in fostering. The next phase is about building on that foundation so the Hub can support the whole journey from initial interest through assessment, approval and early support.
Greater Manchester’s approach is to build an end-to-end hub that is regional in design, locally connected and aligned to the wider GM sufficiency programme. Local authorities will continue to retain statutory responsibility for children, placement decisions and their wider fostering duties, while the Hub will increasingly provide a shared route for recruitment, assessment, approval and early support.
 

Decision

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Children's Services seeking approval for the Greater Manchester Fostering Recruitment Hub to progress the transition from the current regional recruitment model to an end-to-end fostering hub model.

A representative of the Greater Manchester Fostering Hub attended the meeting, presented the report and responded to questions and comments from Members.

In presenting the report, the Officer advised that the current Greater Manchester Fostering Hub was hosted by Rochdale Borough Council on behalf of the ten Greater Manchester local authorities under an existing Memorandum of Understanding. The current arrangement supported a regional recruitment model focused on marketing, enquiry management, initial screening and early applicant engagement.

The Officer proceeded to advise that, building on the progress achieved through the regional recruitment approach, the proposed end-to-end model would provide a more integrated and consistent pathway for prospective foster carers. The model would extend beyond initial enquiry and recruitment activity to include assessment, approval and certain elements of ongoing support.

The Officer explained that this represented a significant opportunity to strengthen the regional fostering offer, improve the experience of applicants and carers, and increase the availability of stable, local family-based placements for children and young people across Greater Manchester.

The Officer further advised that approval was being sought for Rochdale Council, as one of the ten Greater Manchester local authorities, to delegate its foster carer recruitment, assessment and approval functions to the Greater Manchester Fostering Recruitment Hub. It was noted, however, that the proposal did not include the recruitment, assessment or approval of family and friends (kinship) foster carers, which would remain outside the scope of the arrangements.

Resolved:

1. That the strategic case for the transition from the current Greater Manchester Fostering Recruitment Hub model to an end-to-end regional fostering hub model be endorsed;
2. That the national policy context, including the Government's ambition to create 10,000 additional fostering placements and the associated Department for Education funding opportunities available to participating authorities be noted;
3. That the delegation of agreement by the Director of Children’s Services (in consultation with other authorities and the portfolio holder for Children’s Services and the S151 officer) the proposed funding formula and resource contributions for financial years 26/27 and 27/28 for Rochdale Council be noted and agreed, with a view to longer term delivery;
4. That the proposed HR recommendations on 2 year secondments of staff in scope in the existing roles within the ten local authorities and recruitment of staff to any unfilled roles, as permanent Rochdale employees be noted and agreed;
5. That it be approved in principle that Rochdale Borough Council continue as the host authority for the Greater Manchester Fostering Hub and delegated authority be granted to the Director of Children's Services, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, Section 151 Officer and Portfolio Holder for Children's Services and Education, to negotiate, finalise and enter into all agreements necessary to establish and operate the end-to-end regional hub including:

• the Partnership Agreement;

• section 101 Local Government Act 1972 delegation arrangements;

• funding and cost-sharing arrangements;

• information sharing and data protection agreements;

• governance arrangements;

• staffing arrangements; and

• any ancillary documentation required to give effect to the proposal;

1. That, subject to completion of the agreements referred to in recommendation 5 and the required approvals being obtained by participating Greater Manchester local authorities, it be agreed in principle the delegation by Rochdale Borough Council of the fostering recruitment, assessment and approval functions described within section 5 of the report (excluding family and friends foster carers) to the Greater Manchester Fostering Hub, and delegate authority be granted to the Director of Children's Services, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children's Services and Education and the Monitoring Officer, to implement those arrangements and approve any operational matters necessary for their delivery.

Reason for decision:

Securing sufficient fostering households remained a significant challenge across Greater Manchester. By the end of 2024/25, the number of GM children in mainstream fostering placements was 7% lower than six years earlier, with a sharper 10% reduction in in-house mainstream placements. Over the same period, mainstream residential placements across all provider types increased by 41%. The resulting increased reliance on residential care continues to create significant financial pressure across all GM Local Authority budgets. The latest published outturn figures for local authority revenue expenditure suggests GM collectively spent at least £920m on children’s social care across 2024/25, including over £530m purely on looked after children.

The Foster for GM Hub is already demonstrating measurable improvement at the front end of the recruitment pathway in all aspects within its gift. Since launch, 99.8% of initial enquiries have been responded to within one working day, more than a quarter of initial enquiries have converted to an initial visit, and conversion from initial visit to application has increased by 10 percentage points, reaching its highest level in three years. The first-year review also found that 51% of initial visits converted to application, compared with 41% in the 12 months prior to May 2024, while initial enquiry to initial visit conversion improved by seven percentage points.

The introduction of foster carer ambassadors has strengthened applicant engagement, with application rates 36% higher for households supported by an ambassador. More recent performance data also shows a strengthening pipeline, with households in assessment increasing by 30% compared with the previous year and 11 household approvals recorded in May 2026. However, approvals remain below the DfE baseline, with 106 household approvals against a baseline of 116, and there remains significant variation in application-to-approval conversion across local authorities, ranging from 11.1% to 51.7%. This variation in performance supports the case for moving to an end-to-end model, which would allow Greater Manchester to build on improved early-stage performance, while creating greater consistency, grip and accountability across assessment and approval.

Further details on the activity required to deliver against the DfE minimum expectations of a regionalised fostering hub are provided below.

Alternatives considered and rejected:

The first alternative would be to disband the hub and revert to the 10 Greater Manchester LA’s undertaking all fostering recruitment work. The declining number of fostering households and placements over a number of years and improvement in conversion rates in the early stages of the process since the inception of the hub, would evidence this is not a workable option. Furthermore, scoping exercises regarding staff currently undertaking recruitment activity within each LA, would suggest that it is, in some LA’s, under resourced and not prioritised in terms of staffing allocation to the task.

The second alternative would be to continue with the Hub as is, undertaking enquiry to application, the hub has evidenced improvement in consistency and conversion rates from enquiry to application. This has not resulted in a significant improvement in approval rates, following the application being handed over to the respective LA for assessment. This option does not therefore provide improved sufficiency capacity, increased placement choice for children or budgetary benefits from reducing dependency on residential care and is therefore not recommended.